Coconut beer

Fair trade coconut beer from Belgium. 

Have you ever had coconut juice or water? It has the same smell as that, with the appearance you might find with a cloudy cider, albeit with a slightly yellower tinge. 

Coconut has a well-known taste: something that reminds you of a hotter climate, and more exotic fruits and foods. 

This beer definitely aims to hit those taste buds and amplify your other sense to make you feel like you are in a tropical climate. 

It doesn't taste like beer. It is more like a carbonated coconut drink with that bitterness that you get with a beer. But it's not overpowering in the slightest. As beers go, it isn't something that really showcases. But if you just want to show off an alcoholic beverage with a coconut taste, it isn't horrible, an there isn't anything else out there that I could compare it to that I know of. 

So a coconut fizzy drink could do just about the same job as this. In fact, it may just be worthwhile having a Malibu with sparkling water. It would have the same effect. 

:-)

Elky

Banana beer

Exotic beer with the flavour of banana. 

This beer has travelled all the way Belgium. It may be available in the shops over here in the UK but I wouldn't know as it was gifted to me. 

It has a lovely banana smell that I've also smelt before in banana liqueurs. It smells slightly flat with a hint of alcohol, but it isn't unpleasant. 

It's immediately sweet with an almost medicine-like taste, but the bitterness and sweetness help to cancel each other out slightly so it ends up being quite a refreshing taste. 

At 3.6% alcohol content, it's an enjoyable beverage on a hot day especially if you're looking just to have a sip of alcohol without actually getting drunk. As I am trying it now. 

:-)

Elky

Kit Kat - Passion Fruit, Strawberry and Matcha Green Tea & Cherry Blossom

Passion fruit flavour.

Have you ever had passion fruit? Or a passion fruit juice perhaps? The thing that strikes you first is the smell: it makes up about half of what the fruit actually tastes like. The passion fruit flavoured Kit Kat definitely has the taste of the fruit, but it doesn't smell like it. There is no doubt that the flavour is spot on, but the smell is almost citrus-like. What I can say is that it is delicious! The yellow colour of the bar is enticing and suits the flavour well!

Strawberry (Wa-Ichigo).

The teeny Kit Kats of Japan

The thing with strawberry flavoured foods is that they never have a nice smell unless you add something like vanilla essence. Strawberries themselves aren't that pleasant smelling; if you've ever made a smoothie with strawberries it can be very off-putting, and that's with the natural fruit. This Kit Kat variation has that artificial strawberry smell that you get from other strawberry products. Protein bars and shakes in strawberry flavour have been some of the worst that I've tried in taste smell and in looks. This Kit Kat is in the same shade of pink that I've seen the aforementioned products in, but having the Kit Kat logo stamped over it makes it a lot more appetising than them. Unfortunately, it has that same odd taste that artificial strawberry products have. Don't get me wrong, it tastes more like a strawberry and cream infusion, which is a lot better than other products in comparison, but it's lower down the list on recommend Kit Kats. 

Cherry Blossom and Matcha Green Tea flavour (Sakura Matcha).

I had a few questions before I tucked into this flavour as I wasn't sure of what it was apart from a little flower on the packaging. Which flower is this? The green chocolate doesn't exactly get your taste buds going, not in this shade anyway. Then again I loved the Green Tea flavour and it was a lighter version of this. Still, the green bar in the pink packaging is a big contrast, and before you've even taken a bite you might be wondering what you're getting into. 

Oh my goodness. What a treat. It has an overpowering taste that explodes in your mouth. Sure, it hasn't got much of a smell, which is surprising for a chocolate flavoured from a flower (plant / tree), but it has a creamy, silky feel and taste like no other chocolate bar I've tried. The crunch of the biscuit with the creaminess of the chocolate is a great fit and I would go as far as saying it is one of the best Kit Kat flavours I've ever tasted. It's so original compared to the other chocolates we have on the market including those more "gourmet" varieties. A very nice surprise! And this was all without knowing what flower the chocolate was flavoured by. 

It turns out (after a quick googling) that the Sakura Matcha flavour takes its taste from the Sakura, cherry blossom, and Matcha green tea combination. As I've said previously, when I tasted the Green Tea Kit Kat, I was a big fan, and this combo doesn't disappoint either. 

I tried three Kit Kat flavours from Japan, and they each had something different going for them. Although the Strawberry Kit Kat has nice packaging, it's my least favourite of the bars in this tasting as it has that artificial strawberry taste, smell and look. It still beats anything over in this country though.

The Passion Fruit Kit Kat automatically hits you when you take a bite. The smell alone isn't of passion fruit, but after it enters your mouth, you can't fault it. All the elements add up to give you a scrumptious passion fruit flavoured, biscuity chocolate. 

The final flavour was the biggest surprise for me. The pretty-in-pink packaging lulls you into a false expectation as to what the chocolate will look like; striking green is not your first guess. But this is what makes it the most intriguing. Add to that a flavour I can't quite put my finger on (or two in the case of these mini Kit Kats), yet it still being the tastiest out of the three, and I think it's a winner. 

:-)

Elky

With thanks to my "dealer" Rosa  over in bloggerland ;-)

After Earth

And after earth, there was a story by a father who wanted to boost his son's career. And it possibly worked. 

After Earth

Will Smith is one of my favourite actors. The only film he's been in that hasn't been awesome was 'I Am Legend', and that's not because he was poor in it. His performance was great, but the book was just miles better. 

Kilometres. I believe it is 100 kilometres that Kitai Raige, Jaden's character, has to travel to recover the beacon thingy-majiggy; the technical gubbins that the father and son combo have to use to call for help on this planet which has evolved to kill our species. 

There are cute conversations that happen throughout the film that highlight the people are no longer of this planet, such as when Kitai's sister (or mother, I got confused) holds up a physical copy of Moby Dick and exclaims that she had been able to take it out of the museum / library. I guess there are no books in the future / 'After Earth' period. 

The start of the film gives us a back story into the characters of Kitai and dad Cypher that leads up to their crash landing, but the whole aim of this film is to give more screen-time to the young Smith. 

That's not a terrible thing though; story by Will Smith and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the kid has a big break and a lot of pressure to show he is his father's son, or rather that he's a competent actor despite the large shoes he has to fill. 

Jaden has a lot of time to show off that he can do these kind of roles, but it means that there isn't much screen time for any nobodies (to put it bluntly), or even Will Smith himself. The trailers for this film make it seem like there will be interaction between the two throughout the film, but the only interaction is done via a high-tech walkie talkie. 

The special effects are out of this world (well it's our world... but it's different now... so... they're good). There are chimps / apes / baboons, and giant eagles which seem to be all-CGI, and also creations such as the Ursa Monster (Although I kept saying Ursa Major in my head), which is quite an imaginative and bland creature at the same time. 

There are surprising moments in the film portrayed through memories and hallucinations from lack of sleep from both the father's and son's perspectives. They're welcome additions to break up the running and action scenes and it's a shame they're not looked into more in depth. There could have been a whole other layer to the film if there was more focus on the activities off earth. 

So it's a nice idea for a film, and good sentiments behind why Will Smith has a story focusing on a young boy's journey to save his dad's, and his own, life. There are some heartfelt moments where we see how and why their relationship has been affected, and again it's these scenes that I think would have benefited from having more exploration.

As a new film, it's not one I'd say is a must see, but it's light-hearted and is jumpy in a few places so by all means isn't terrible. 

Well call me Ismail. Those humans didn't kill all the whales!

:-)

Elky

Pan

Pan

After dinner mint equivalent?

This is the first time I've ever seen or heard of the leaf folded into a triangle shape and containing rose syrup, some kind of seeds, a jam substance and tobacco apparently. 

Every culture has there own delicacies and oddities, my own has uncooked, salted, dried meat with oregano. It sounds odd but I've grown up with it, and so I find it delicious! (It's called samorella or pastırma depending on where you're from). 

But back to Pan; I was recommended it by a friend after we had just had a late meal and apparently it is something you eat after such an occasion. What he didn't tell me was that it wasn't really a dessert, which was what I was expecting. 

Biting into a leaf is as you would expect, leafy. It isn't a salad leaf which is usually soft or crisp, but an actual waxy, chewy unknown variety. 

The gentleman making the parcels laid two leafs slightly overlapping each other and covered them with the seeds which varied from things you see in the supermarket but don't know the name of, to brightly coloured pellets that look like they'd come straight out of a candy store.  Even asking my friend what half of the things going into the parcel didn't really get me anywhere, apart from pointing out the one that was tobacco, which was slightly off-putting. 

Chewing the first bite of the Pan, I was hit by a bunch of different flavours and textures. I had the crunch of the seeds, the sweetness of the syrup and jam, a bitterness from the tobacco, a chewiness from the leaf and a shock to my senses. I can't really compare it to anything I've tried before, as there isn't really anything I know that is similar. 

The bitterness is with you while you chew, and swallowing the last bite of the Pan I couldn't see myself going out of my way to have it again, especially because of the tobacco aspect. 

However, as I drove off into the night, dislodging seeds from between my teeth (glamorous), the sweetness of the rose was still present, and for some reason, although I didn't see, smell or taste any hint of mint, my mouth felt minty-fresh which was quite pleasant. 

For people who are always looking for something new to experience, I would recommend trying a sweet Pan and maybe asking for it without tobacco. There's something off-putting to me about that element, even though I don't know the rest of the ingredients in the parcel anyway. 

There is also a plain Pan, which did not look as appetising as my leaf, and had none of the brightly coloured seeds or pellets, or jam, or rose syrup or most of the things I had to rave about. 

I won't be eating Pan again, but I am glad that I have tried it, because now I can say I have. 

:-)

Elky 

Green Tea Kit Kat

Green Tea Kit Kat

Green Tea Kit Kat

Kit Kat is awesome. They've released so many flavours and variations over the years to keep things fresh, and I find some of the most recent additions to be some of the best! (Hazelnut anyone?)

This has also meant they have released the not-so-nice flavours.  Coconut was the strangest, least appetising chocolate I've had the chance of eating recently. I thought it would be a crispy, crunchy Bounty; it wasn't. 

I'm a big peanut butter flavour Kit Kat fan and I added the hazelnut flavour Kit Kat to my top Kit Kat list. These are both 'Chunky' bars which means more chocolatey goodness! But breaks away from the original two / four-finger treat. 

Which brings me to my latest Kit Kat flavour find: Green Tea flavour!

My Giant hand size comparison

I'm not sure if it's available in the UK as it was gifted to me by Rosa and is covered in Japanese writing. What I do know is that it has an awesome creamy chocolate flavour, in a somewhat off-putting green tinge. The taste resembles that of those pink wafers (for some reason my mind jumps to a purple packet with the Pink Panther munching away on them) that sandwich a creamy filling of 'something', but with less of the stale texture or 'bite' that they have. 

The Green Tea Kit Kat actually doesn't have an overpowering green tea taste, in fact, it's very mild. It's a shame it doesn't exist in the UK, as I'd be one of the people that would go out of the way to find a bar, or recommend to a friend. 

Two things though: firstly, it would be nice to have it available in UK size; my hands engulf the tiny bars. And secondly, I don't think it would suit the Chunky range. In fact, just bring it over how it is Kit Kat! I want my Green Tea Kit Kat fix!

:-)

Elky

Special thanks to my Japanese chocolate dealer, Rosa, of http://www.rosainbloggerland.com/ :-)

The Purge

Imagine a day where laws are relaxed to the point that murder is allowed. This is the basis of "The Purge".

"Oh my gah it's Ethan Hawke" - Peter Griffin, Family Guy.

The Purge

It's a very interesting concept, it got me thinking and also discussing what the consequences of an annual cull would mean. It would mean survival of the fittest for sure; natural elimination, more natural than postponing people's deaths when they are unfit and unwell, and would also mean that the human gene pool would be less diluted with weaker individuals.

It would also mean those that could afford private security personnel, or pay for military grade home protection, bunkers or panic rooms would have a better fighting chance of a fighting chance. It would unbalance all the good (if you could call the inhumane way of killing off our fellow man) that this purge allows.

There is a message that is broadcast on the annual day that states how the new founding fathers of America have reduced crime to 1% for some measured period of time, excluding the actual day of chaos. People in support of the day put a certain species of flower on their front lawn to show their support of the day.

Ethan Hawke is James Sandin, and he sells security systems to wealthy people. His own family have profited annually and show their wealth by having the biggest home in the neighbourhood of large homes. There is a hint of jealousy from his neighbours as they wish the Sandins a safe purge night.

The film is quite well put together; there are plot twists, introduction of characters like Zoey Sandin's (Adelaide Kane) boyfriend and a stranger trying to escape from hunters taking part in the purge. We see a development of the Sandin characters via their interaction with these mentioned characters, neighbours and, the enemy in the film, a crazed purge gang of well-educated youngsters.

There are well-placed jumpy scenes where the youngsters, who are dressed in Public school uniforms and creepy white dresses complete with face masks, just suddenly appear. They want something from the Sandins, and they either want it handed to them or they will take it from them with fatal force.

So it is a creepy film, with some genuinely disturbing content to think about, but this makes it an uneasy, but enjoyable watch.

Hawke has done some films of late that seem to poke the audience into thinking while they watch, which a lot of new films do not try as hard to do any more.

Kudos. Go Purge...

:-)

Elky

Iron Man Three

Iron Man times three-hundred.

Firstly I would like to hash tag #foreveralone. Not because I was the only one in the cinema (although this was the case for this 3D showing except for one couple), it's because I'm probably the only one to say this film is actually terrible for the Iron Man franchise.

Iron Man Three 3D

As a stand-alone film for a metallic man, I'm sure it would be considered great, but continuing on from the previous two which were so good this is really disappointing. The Iron Man is a mess, the villain is laughable and it all feels like a build up to an anti-climax. Maybe the Avengers introduced something too exciting for a continuation to live up to the hype, or maybe people got lazy, but apart from the production values which are fantastic, the film falls very short.

"I'm blue daba dee daba die". This was the opening to the film; it excited me to the prospect that opening with this level of awesome would continue throughout the film. My nineties inner-self was disappointed. A New Year's Eve party is a big bang to open with and sets up the film with characters that will be linked back to later on. But it's never really as exciting as party-mode Stark.

The penned villain of the film is the Mandarin. A terrorist who targets America and the West with attacks that incinerate people. I never found his character that interesting to be honest, until later on when a twist made him much more exciting.

A character by the name of Trevor was actually the highlight of the film for me. His leer was the toast of Croydon don't you know? Trevor's character was a welcome comedic entry to an otherwise dull story, but there was always an underlying feeling in me that his character would pan out the way it did even from the start of the film.

Other bad guy characters in the film have an okay power, but are again not very exciting and are seen a mile before they're even relevant to the story. A young kid (Ty Simpkins) that Stark befriends is another comedic character that adds more interesting aspects to the film than the actual story does. If his role was bigger, it would not have been a bad thing.

This is a film about the many Iron Man suits rather than the actual Iron Man. It's fantastic seeing all the different types of suit that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) has created, but I don't feel like this is what Iron Man is about. Stark is about quality, not quantity, and the suits feel really weak compared to what I believed they were capable of. Iron Man previously fought aliens, but Iron Men can't even fly straight.

You don't actually see much of Iron Man throughout most of the film. It's a very limited amount of time that you actually see Stark in the suit and feels like they're trying to kill off the films. You see Stark going through a mental breakdown of sorts and while Downey does a good job of making it believable, it means the majority of the film is about a normal man. If this was to be the case, maybe they should have called the film 'Tony Stark' instead.

I don't know if it was supposed to be a trilogy but this film made it feel like the Iron Man franchise should have stopped while it was on a high if this is what it was going to turn into. A okay film but no Iron Man sequel!

And if you know how marvel films end, there's usually a small clip at the end. It really wasn't worth hanging back to see. It isn't a hint at a new marvel film and it isn't really very funny. In fact it teases at what could be elsewhere with other Marvel characters.

Tony stark will return apparently, but if it's anything like this, why bother? Make a film about Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) instead!

:-)

Elky

Hairy Biker Brownie Bodge Bake

The weighing scale wasn't working properly. This meant when we tried to measure out our ingredients, we weren't really sure if having a barely-budging scale was a help or a hindrance.

My sister and I had seen 'The Hairy Bikers' on TV a week or two ago; they had made chocolate brownies. They looked delicious, and my sibling and I had talked about making them ever since. Today was the day we put the brownie where our mouth is. Where our mouths are. We ate brownies basically.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bikers_chocolate_46736

We used 'The Hairy Bikers' recipe, as closely as we could. We had no fruit, but used a combination of dark and white chocolate, and walnuts. Melting butter was unexciting, as was measuring out ingredients; I left these jobs to my sister.

I dealt with manly things, like cracking eggs into a bowl and whisking them. I also whisked melted butter with (brown / Demerara) sugar before combining this with the beaten eggs. Then cocoa and flour was sieved and mixed into the sugary, buttery, caramel-egg liquid.

My arm still hurts. Never send a man to do a machine's job.

The "batter" got a nice helping of chunks of dark and white chocolate, as well as some chopped walnuts. We added these when the mix had cooled a bit so the chunks didn't go-to-goo before they hit the heat.

We parchment-papered a silicon baking square (it's not really a tin, and it's weirdly flexible) before tipping the mixture into the tray and putting it in the oven, making sure to set timers for 25 minutes.

The raw batter in the bowl tasted good.

When the buzzer beeped, I can't say I delayed in prodding the cake-like end-product eagerly. It needed another 7 minutes of cooking time before we took it out to cool, but there it was.

Brownie goodness. I don't know what 'The Hairy Bikers' brownies tasted like, but our attempt tasted very strongly of chocolate. There's a load of sugar, butter, and chocolate in this recipe so it definitely isn't low in fat, but that obviously isn't the point.

The square I had was so indulgent that I had to stop at one molten chocolate piece. I'm really looking forward to a cool, more solidified brownie tomorrow.

Bring on the breakfast brownie!

:-)

Elky

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Charlie (Logan Lerman) writes letters. He has a pen pal, well a pen audience rather. He never receives a reply, but that's not the point. Charlie has had a troubled life, and the letters act as a release. It is within these letters that we hear his story told.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

He's a freshman in high school, which I guess means the first year of secondary school, but he's 16 so it's a little different to the schools over here in the UK. He hasn't got any friends, and the friends he did have from before no longer interact with him. He is portrayed as alone and is picked on by the other kids.

Patrick (Ezra Miller) has been held back in shop class (design and technology?). He is a senior who Charlie approaches at a football game after seeing him act out in class. He introduces Charlie to his step-sister, Sam played by Emma Watson. They go on a drive and hear a song which Sam particularly takes a fondness to. In the film, this song is 'Heroes' by David Bowie, but in the novel it is 'Landslide' by Fleetwood Mac. It is in this scene where we see the start of a moving friendship, with Charlie proclaiming to feel "infinite".

These friends are the ones who dub him the "Wallflower". He's a quiet boy, but Charlie sees and understands what's going on around him, apart from when he blacks out from stress-related occasions.

The story unfolds around Charlie's first experiences: his first kiss, his first dance, his first telling someone that a friend of his had shot themselves in the head the previous summer. Some of the things that the majority of people would go through at some point in their life if not in high school.

He is also introduced to drugs, sex, music, parties and meets his first girlfriend, which amuses and causes you to cringe at the same time. You see, he takes a liking to Sam, but it never really works out between them throughout the majority of the film.

It's a really moving story and the parts where Charlie interacts with characters alone rather than in groups really immerses you in this life. He does essays in his spare time for his favourite teacher Mr. Anderson (Paul Rudd), makes mix-tapes for Sam, and helps other friends with issues they're dealing with, even though he has  big issues of his own.

Set in the 90s, it cuts out a lot of the things that make us less physically social nowadays. There is less about online and more about being in the moment and living life. Mix-tapes are an example of something that has seemingly died with the evolution of technology; no longer can you put a physical product together from a bunch of recordings off the radio. There's copyright issues and the fact nobody has a cassette player any more. I also doubt somebody will give you a mix USB stick.

This film struck a chord with me. I've seen some of the issues raised in the film as I'm sure a lot of people would have, but the nostalgic style in which it's told and the story that accompanies that style just gives it an edge above other films set in high school. It's a funny, emotional, positive ride through some of the best and worst years of life and that's a good enough reason for me to recommend seeing a wallflower's take on things.

:-)

Elky

Gangster Squad

I may have to go out and buy a fedora , a crisp new suit and a Tommy gun! Okay maybe none of them, but films like Gangster Squad really get your adrenaline pumping!

That shiz is gangsta!

The story goes that mob-boss Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) is growing more and more powerful in the city of Los Angeles. He wants increased territory and power so starts pulling underhanded moves against his just-as-dishonest neighbours in Chicago and the West Coast.

Cue Sergeant James O'Mara (Josh Brolin), who is "recruited" (if you can call it that) by Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) for an undercover, non-LAPD-endorsed, ultra-sensitive, covert-gang mission (...and breathe). O'Mara is against Cohen's ruthless grip on the city and has shown it by breaking a few rules on his daily patrols.

So that's the Gangster Squad. Imagine Ocean's Eleven, but a bit further back in the past, with swankier clothes, less gambling (although it is featured) and many more Tommy guns and you have something which is very different; very different, but in essence, using a group to get back at the man with the power.

O'Mara or "Sarge", as he's referred to by his team of five, hit Cohen's dens, shops, bars, clubs and also his shipments, never taking anything for themselves but leaving Cohen scarred. They burn money and shoot his guys in the leg (they are officers of the law, they must uphold some of the rules; leg wounds are allowed).

The Gangster Squad are all men of the law; they can't be bought, and Cohen knows this. He gets increasingly frustrated as his empire is brought down around him, but he does manage to get his own-back on a few members of the group, as well as the people they care about.

It's all very predictable, but it's done in a such a suave way that takes the 40s/50s best bits and crams them into a feature film with drugs, guns and money. All major ways to grab the attention of an audience and keep it. The filter / effect that the feature is filmed in also helps reinforce the gritty and seedy underbelly of LA while glamorising the bars and clubs, and the music that accompanies them.

In conclusion, I think the next costume I get will be accompanied by a fedora; if I'd had that while I watched this film, that would have increased my cool tenfold. Perhaps.


:-)

Elky

Blockbuster

It's gone. Blockbuster was never a place I used to frequent when younger. I heard friends talking about renting films but I was never into renting; I like to own things.

So why do I miss Blockbuster? Well, there would be times of boredom where I'd go to one of the many within a reasonable distance to grab some bargains. They had a large selection of new releases of films, games, edible items, but also a huge number of old, pre-owned or ex-rental DVDs that you could pick up for a few pounds.

I miss this. I would grab a load of films all in one go and watch them over a long period on those dull days or nights. I found a few gems in those hauls that I still have, and I know exactly where they came from.

Blockbuster.

I visited the my local Blockbuster store a few nights ago. It was shut. They had been closing down gradually over time but after they went bust I guess I should have expected it. But what do I do to find those random classics? Or those bad budget films which I've had a laugh at on many an occasion?

Well, I don't really know. I had to go to a nearby supermarket, and their selection was very limited to the newest of releases, with their prices being closer to RRP than I'm comfortable with.

So what am I going to do now for my random film finds? Well, there's always word of mouth, and I remember as a kid borrowing films from the library, but it's not the same. I like that physical copy that's a bit beaten and battered that I could pass around to friends and family knowing that I could replace it with one of the other five that sit in the quiet stores.

Online killed the high street for sure, but it killed fun too.

Elky :-)